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New Band Night at the Distillery Distillery The Distillery is located down town within walking distance of the lesbian frequented Club 21 and the once live venue Press Club. Since The Press Club changed to a DJ dance format, The Distillery has really stepped up its live shows to fill the void. Though The Townhouse, also just a block or so away, has started to have live bands as well play on the second floor—which means bands hauling their gear up stairs—The Distillery has been attracting bigger and bigger acts. Sacramento photographer and promoter, Jay Spooner handles booking duties for Thursday nights and uses that night to give new bands an opportunity to get some exposure. Tonight set the scene for Thomas Montoya and his band, new Davis act The Zim Zims, and Didley Squat who literally played their first ever show anywhere tonight.
Montoya took the stage first. The band had sort of a Morrissey, almost The Cure, kind of vibe with some 50’s rock influence in there as well. Drums mostly stuck to soft jazz beats with rim hits rather than snare hits. The few fills consisted of triplet 16th notes on the snare. And each time the drummer would go back into the beat a few milliseconds late. There were a couple of kicks slightly off time, but nothing that anyone other than an over critical critic would have noticed. And nothing six more months of practice couldn’t fix. The bass player kept his back to the crowd the entire set. He played pretty simple bass lines of quarter notes on root notes, but did play the occasional arpeggio. The keyboardist alternated between chords played in whole notes with a strings patch and some scale work. For Hole in My Heart, he switched to an organ sound. Thomas played chords on guitar and sang. Vocally, he stayed in the middle of his tenor range, not deviating far from his comfort zone. In just a couple songs he switched the falsetto for part of the chorus. Over all, more practice to get tighten up the rhythm section and a whole lot more enthusiasm on stage could make a big improvement.
Next up, three piece Davis band, The Zim Zims set up in the corner of The Distillery ready to rock the ten or so people in attendance. Their music could be considered pop rock, but with a rhythm section far more intricate than seen in pop or rock. With constant beat changes, inverse beats with the snare hits on the one and threes, choppy funk rhythms, and all out slushy jams on the ride, that band played pop songs that would be easier to mosh to rather than dance to. The bass player stuck to the doctrine of funk bass players—accent with pauses. It’s a great thing to see bass players that can throw down some quick notes, then silence, then more notes, and repeat rather than double the guitars and not stand out at all. For a relatively new band, The Zim Zims played remarkably tight. The singer/guitarist did a good job as well. The only problem the band had was a lack of good, strong vocal hooks and melodies. Some time spent writing new material could make a huge difference in their success as a band.
What would happen if Devo called up Ed Grimley and asked him to be their rap vocalist? Didley Squat is the closest we may ever get to an answer. Through constant convolutions lasting the entire set, spastic vocalist David Mohr fronted the band. Guitarist Jacob Barcena played a lot of power chords and at times, peddled on single notes. Stuart Nishiyama played keys. Some of the keyboard parts were decent sounding arpeggios and scales. Other times, they were horribly annoying, out of key single note harmonies. Casey James did his best to keep a steady beat through out—sometimes having to decide whether to follow the guitarist or the keyboards as the two were sometimes an entire beat off from each other like for the intro to the song Rose. The band closed with perhaps their best song, Too Nervous which starts with arpeggios on the key boards and quickly moves to a punk beat. The song builds well and was a good ending to a set that otherwise emptied the club of everyone but the band’s family members. With a lot more practice getting tighter and some less dissonant chord voicing choices from the keyboardist, Didley Squat has a shot at attracting some fans with their eclectic sound. |
